The Wonder and the Worry

Chris with camera in hand in California's Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.

In September of 2021, I teamed up with Oregon State Productions to begin shooting a feature-length documentary about the life and work of one of the university's notable alumni: Chris Johns, former Editor-in-Chief and staff photographer at National Geographic Magazine. The documentary, entitled The Wonder and the Worry, follows Chris and his daughter Louise, who is also a documentary photographer, as they revisit some of the places and landscapes that have proven formative to their identities—both as westerners and storytellers.

The documentary is set to release in 2024. Some of the production stills in this gallery were published alongside a feature I wrote about Chris for the Spring '22 edition of the Oregon Stater magazine.

Louise at home on the Anderson Ranch in Montana's Tom Miner Basin.

Chris gazes up at redwood trees in California's Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, where he often went on boyhood excursions.

Chris and Louise check on a camera trap that Louise had set up near a cow carcass on the Anderson Ranch. Louise uses camera traps to document wildlife, including wolves and grizzly bears.